Tonight's road game is a homecoming for New Orleans Hornets' Chris Paul

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneChris Paul expects hundreds of friends and family to be in attendance tonight when the Hornets play at Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This city's NBA team might be struggling at the box office, but tonight the Bobcats' coffers are in for a windfall. Hornets All-Star point guard Chris Paul is coming to town, and he expects anywhere from 400 to 500 relatives and friends to drop by the Time Warner Cable Arena so that he can entertain them for 2 1/2 hours.

"Some of my family members, it's the only time they get to see me play in the NBA, " Paul said. "They see me on TV, but this is the only time in person. And usually my coaches from Wake (Forest) get to come up, too."

Because Winston-Salem is a 60- to 90-minute drive across the state, Paul's Wake Forest entourage, as well as acquaintences from his hometown, has the opportunity to attend the game against the Bobcats.

With the Hornets in the Western Conference, it means only one visit per season to Eastern Conference cities, and this one comes on the heels of a difficult loss Wednesday night to the Atlanta Hawks at the New Orleans Arena.

For Paul, it was the first time he'd lost a basketball game since the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Hornets in the seventh game of the conference semifinals May 19.

The Hornets had opened the regular season with three victories, which followed a 7-0 exhibition season. Before that, Paul had played in, and won, eight games in the Beijing Olympics, which followed five winning pre-Olympic exhibitions with the U.S. team.

"That's what I was thinking about (Wednesday) night, " Paul said. "My last time losing a game was Game 7. I hadn't lost in a long time, whether it's in practice or the USA team. I wasn't used to losing.

"And I don't like that feeling. I knew it was going to happen eventually, but I was one of those people who actually thought we could go 82-0."

The Bobcats are 1-3 this year, in a rebuilding mode under new coach Larry Brown and coming off a difficult three-point loss in New York on Wednesday night to a Knicks team Brown had coached.

Hornets Coach Byron Scott, who considers Brown, his former coach when Scott played briefly with the Indiana Pacers, a mentor, understands the Hornets can't be deceived by Charlotte's downtrodden history -- the Bobcats are 78-172 since joining the league as an expansion team in 2004 and have never won more than 33 games in a season.

"You know what? When you're playing teams like Atlanta and Charlotte, teams that don't have a history of winning as of late, those are the teams you come out and play even harder against, " Scott said. "The great teams in this league play harder against lesser competition than they do against great competition because against good teams, you're going to get up for those games.

"It showed to me (Wednesday) night that we're still in the same boat we were last year as far as our maturity level, as far as understanding that we have to come and play every single night and even harder against teams we feel we should beat."

Last year in two games against Charlotte, Paul averaged 17 points and 12 assists in two New Orleans victories.

In the loss against the Hawks, Paul scored 19 first-half points but was limited to three in the second half.

"We've got to understand that teams are coming for us, " Paul said. "We're going to score on certain nights, but that can't be our M.O. We've got to defend and be a team that the other teams fear. I don't think right now teams are scared to play against us. We've got to sort of have an edge about us."

Getting back to winning, starting tonight, Paul said, surpasses any emotions he has about his annual homecoming trip.

"It's a long season, 82 games, " he said. "I've never been one of those guys who's been big on trying to impress the teams you used to play for, or your hometown or anything. I'm all about winning.

"I think I've lost before going to Charlotte for a game before. It's all about winning right now. This is my fourth year, so it's bigger than one game. We'd have liked to go 82-0, but we knew it wasn't too likely. Like I said (Wednesday) night, we've got to try and form an identity."

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Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3814.